“I’m busy. I really am.” Su Yu had his legs propped on the table and was half sprawled in his chair without the slightest semblance of proper posture. Looking listless and wearing a sour expression, he stared at the two children’s beds in front of him.
“Busy doing what? Brother Yu, saving a life brings more merit than building a seven-story pagoda. I really need you for this…” The boy on the phone could tell persuasion was getting nowhere. “What are you doing right now? Didn’t you say this morning that you were free today?”
The child in the pink-and-blue bed on the left rolled over. An advanced junior-high physics notebook rested in Su Yu’s lap. Holding a pen in one hand while talking on the phone, he scribbled and circled things as he went, smoothly drawing a large circle around a voltage diagram. Listening to the other boy’s endless whining, he explained impatiently, “My dad has overtime. I’m babysitting.”
The boy gave an “oh.” “Why is your dad working overtime again?”
Exactly. Sudden overtime had dragged him out of the vast ocean of studying and left him under explicit orders to watch his younger brothers.
He had only just managed to coax the noisy one to sleep, and the other one was still awake.
Su Yu sighed. “You’re on your own.”
“Don’t do this to me, bro! Have mercy and save me. If we lose this basketball game, I have to buy that bastard cafeteria meals for an entire month… Paying for the meals is nothing. Losing face is the real problem…” Seeing that pleading was getting him nowhere, the boy changed tactics. “Study notes. I’ll borrow the academic genius’s notes for you.”
Su Yu immediately perked up. “Seriously? You can get them?”
“I can!” the boy guaranteed. “The academic genius’s own little sister is my sister’s classmate. I’ll take the roundabout route. I can borrow them!”
Su Yu became interested at once. He sprang to his feet and turned to check the children’s beds. The one who loved crying and fussing was already fast asleep. The child in the other bed was still awake, his round eyes staring directly at him.
“I’m hanging up. We’ll talk later.” Su Yu stared at him for a while, then pulled up the blanket beside him and tucked the child’s hand underneath. After making sure the little one was lying neatly on his back, he finally reached out and covered the child’s eyelids with his fingers.
When Su Li regained consciousness, all he felt at first was an itch around his eyelids. Unable to resist, he lifted a hand to push away whatever was blocking his vision. A harsh orange light flooded his sight, along with the strangely dressed teenager standing nearby. A violent pain suddenly tore through his head. His body felt as though it were being crushed beneath a heavy stone, and muddled memories instantly surged through the defenses of his mind.
In only a moment, he had matched the teenager before him with the memories in his head.
This person was called Su Yu. He was Su Li’s older brother in this life.
From the moment he had been born and opened his eyes on this completely unfamiliar world, he had never properly awakened from his chaotic state. The cries of infants, the voices of humans, their strange ways of speaking… An overwhelming torrent of information had flooded his already clouded consciousness. He had spent two muddled years like that, only now finally regaining full awareness and sorting out what exactly had happened.
He had once been the last pure-blooded phoenix remaining between heaven and earth. When his tribulation failed, his divine soul escaped and plunged into the chaotic countercurrent of time and space. He did not know how long he had drifted through existence before arriving in this unfamiliar world and reincarnating as this family’s child.
He had reincarnated into an ordinary family and become a human infant.
Su Li came back to himself and shifted his eyes toward the person beside him.
“Why isn’t it working?” Su Yu was puzzled. This younger brother of his was always extremely well behaved. In the past, if Su Yu covered his eyelids, he would obediently fall asleep before long. “You used to fall asleep pretty fast…”
“Su Yu, you little brat, what are you doing now?!”
A scolding voice came from outside the room. A young man in a suit strode in through the doorway. “I told you to watch your brothers, and this is how you do it? You’re even putting your hands on him. How many times have I told you not to cover Baby’s eyelids? Do you even know your own strength? What if you hurt him?”
“Little Li was lying there with his eyes open. Didn’t you do the same thing to tease him last time when he wouldn’t sleep?” Su Yu picked up the physics notebook beside him. “I swear to heaven, I used less force just now than I use to turn a page.”
Dad Su set down his briefcase. “Less force than you use to turn a page? Don’t you know how hard you turn pages?”
Su Yu: “…” There was no explaining this!
Dad Su saw the two children’s beds in the dim light and softened his footsteps as he approached. The infant in the little pink-and-blue bed was sleeping sweetly and even making a faint purring sound. The child in the pale-blue bed, however, had his eyes open. His gaze rested on Dad Su, the man’s figure reflected in those clear eyes.
The one sleeping peacefully was the younger brother, Su Ming. The one awake was the older twin, Su Li.
The two children had been born at dawn, so one was named Li, from the word for daybreak, and the other Ming, from the word for brightness.
They were twin brothers, but they looked different and their physical conditions were different as well.
The younger one had completely inherited their father’s Nine-Tailed Celestial Cat bloodline. He had been born overflowing with energy, loved to cry and fuss, and possessed abundant spiritual power. He was a healthy and exceptionally gifted little kitten. His older brother, Su Li, was the complete opposite of his healthy younger twin.
The younger brother cried constantly; Su Li never made a sound.
The younger brother possessed abundant spiritual power; Su Li did not have even the tiniest trace.
The younger brother displayed extremely obvious signs of his inherited bloodline, while Su Li looked exactly like an ordinary human infant. He had no demonic spirit at all. He was ordinary and simple.
Generally speaking, demon twins were different from human children. There was a very high chance that each child would inherit one parent’s bloodline. Since the younger brother had inherited the Nine-Tailed Celestial Cat bloodline, the older brother should logically have inherited their mother’s Divine Phoenix bloodline.
But he had not. Mom Su could not sense even the slightest trace of the Divine Phoenix bloodline in Su Li.
For a demon infant to have no demonic spirit was the equivalent of being born disabled among the demon race.
Seeing Su Li awake, Dad Su softened his voice and asked, “Baby, why aren’t you sleeping?”
The child did not respond. He only looked at him with his eyes slightly open. Those clear, pure eyes moved slowly, seemingly examining Dad Su’s clothes as though he were a stranger who had to be checked again and again before he could be recognized.
Dad Su had long grown accustomed to the child’s gaze. Every time he returned from outside, the little one looked at him this way. If he happened to wear a watch, change his glasses, or carry a briefcase, the child’s attention would fix on those unfamiliar accessories.
Only later had Dad Su understood that such things seemed to make the child uneasy or frightened.
“Sorry. Dad forgot.”
Dad Su removed his suit jacket and set it aside, then took off his watch before slowly approaching the child. Only after confirming that Su Li was not afraid did he gently lift him into his arms. As he held him, he coaxed softly, “Dad will take you outside to play.”
The child lightly clutched Dad’s clothes. He neither fussed nor resisted.
Dad Su held him even more carefully.
—
The living room was not far from the children’s room. A fluffy rug covered the floor, and every sharp corner on the furniture and decorations had been wrapped in soft foam.
Dad Su carried Su Li out of the children’s room and pulled out a toy he had bought that very morning from a bag nearby—a pellet drum.
The little beads swung from side to side and tapped against the drumhead, producing a series of short, continuous sounds.
Su Li stared silently at the little object that swayed from side to side and made noise. He lowered his head slightly and saw his own small, childish hands.
His divine soul was too powerful, while his reincarnated body was far weaker than his former body had been. In fact, merely carrying his divine soul had left this body frail and feeble. It was the body of a very young child, and controlling it was even harder than he had expected. He could not command it to move freely wherever he wished and had no choice but to let his parents carry him.
Su Li tried moving his fingers. It took a fair amount of effort simply to bend the joints, and only after some time did he gain full control over them.
It seemed he could still use spiritual power. Simple demon arts should not be too difficult… but returning to his former level would apparently take quite some time.
The thump-thump of the pellet drum continued.
Su Li glanced at the toy and had no choice but to seriously reassess his present situation.
So much time had passed since his failed tribulation that he had actually already come to terms with it. For a phoenix like him, responding to a heavenly tribulation was only a matter of time. He had originally believed his cultivation was sufficient to face it safely, yet something had gone wrong at the critical moment. His divine soul had wandered for thousands of years before he finally seized a chance to reincarnate, only to arrive in a world like this.
This appeared to be an ordinary human family. In his memories, his family members were simple and ordinary. His parents had to work, and his older brother had to attend school.
He was now two years old. The person sleeping in the room was his twin younger brother, Su Ming. The one who had covered his eyelids to coax him to sleep was his older brother, Su Yu. The person currently using a little toy to make him happy was his father. He also had a mother, who was apparently an “actress” and was currently away “working.”
But he was not an ordinary person. He was a reincarnated phoenix.
Su Li organized his thoughts. First and most importantly, he needed to gain complete control over this body. After that, he could figure out how to cultivate again…
But did spiritual power even exist in this world? Su Li could sense that something about the world was strange. From the moment he regained consciousness until now, he had not detected the slightest trace of spiritual power in his surroundings.
“Don’t worry. Just focus on filming tonight’s scene first.” Dad Su shook the pellet drum with one hand while using his phone with the other to send his wife a message on VX.
“Yes, I fed him his formula.”
“Right. Baby’s condition today is about the same as before.”
Dad Su shook the pellet drum and only after sending the VX message did he notice that his little one had turned his head and was staring at him, apparently far more interested in the phone in his hand.
Dad Su had no choice but to hand the phone over. “Baby, do you like this?”
Su Li watched as the rectangular object was placed on his lap. He tried pushing it with his hand. It was somewhat heavy.
This body was far too weak. Without spiritual power, he could not even lift such a small object.
He examined it for a while longer.
Strange. How had this thing made sounds just now? Spiritual power? Some method of control? Or something else entirely?
The chaotic fragments of information matched pieces of his muddled memories, forcing Su Li to sort through them again. It seemed the black rectangular thing in front of him could make sounds as well. What was it called again? A liquid-crystal television?
Dad Su had been watching every change in the child. He saw Su Li touch the phone, then after a while shift his gaze toward the television not far away. The little one was completely uninterested in the pellet drum Dad Su had just bought. Left with no other choice, Dad Su shook the toy again in a futile attempt to find something that would catch his interest. “Baby, don’t you like this?”
Su Li hesitated. The toy being used to amuse him was still making its thumping sound, and he looked down at his pale, soft, chubby little hands.
Was he supposed to act very interested?
Everything in the room was completely different from the human objects he had seen before. He could sense no spiritual power at all. Moreover, there were all kinds of devices beyond anything he understood. Everything told him that this was an entirely different world.
Rather than being interested in toys used to entertain children, he was much more curious about exactly what that distant rectangular “liquid-crystal television” was.